The "revamped zones"

Dhrystone · #1 02-05-2019, 11:15 AM

So we all know that the Serpent's Spine expansion was an ambitious attempt to reinvent EQ to be competitive as opposed to a beloved niche game. As a part of that effort a number of the classic old zones were redesigned with updated graphics.

These are the only versions of these older zones on Live now, and if you go there they are ghost zones with almost no one in them unless someone is questing something from somewhere else.

The revamped zones weren't well received by the players at the time and they don't get much love now either.

I've been exploring these zones from the PEQ database and it seems to me they are a valuable resource for a possible server.

What do you all think? Would it be worth it to repopulate those zones with new content? Or are the new revised zones so disliked no one would want to play in them?

What about a server that was the opposite of classic; one that repopulated all the "new graphics" style zones with new content and rearranged them into a revised version of Norrath without any of the "old graphics classic" zones included? (it's pretty jarring to zone from one style to another.)

Curious to your thoughts.
Dhry

chrsschb · #2 02-05-2019, 12:00 PM

Run a server that YOU want to play on. Like minded players will follow.

ChaosSlayerZ · #3 02-05-2019, 12:08 PM

Going zone by zone:

New Misty Thicket - a 99% copy of old zone except new graphics and not perfectly straight zone walls. Perfectly fine IMHO.

New Nektulos - again 99% copy except new extra zone outs that could be put into good use for custom content. Fine again.

New Lavastorm - a rather significant change, but I like it. More land features, 3 extra zone outs for customization.

New CommonLands - replaced both old Commonlands, while look similar the size wise zone is smaller by about 25%, which personally I don't like.

New Desert Ro (2 zones) - similar but 30% smaller in total size than 3 old zones, definite loss, which is sad because I really like new graphics, but I need the room to put things in.

New High Pass - a 90% copy of old zone, minus extra zone out and very bright stone wall texture that may hurt some people eyes. OK by me.

New Freeport - a totally different beast from old Freeport. Probably fine unless you have personal attachment to old layout.

There is also supposedly New Innothule, new Kithior and New Feerrot (other than Feerrot the Dream), but I am unable to get them to load on RoF-2 client which supposedly the latest available for Emu.

There is of course a sentiment from die hard fans that detest anything revamped no matter how good it is.

chrsschb · #4 02-05-2019, 12:26 PM

New Highpass and New Freeport are the biggest disappointments. The rest are fine.

Also, don't forget Tox!

Dhrystone · #5 02-05-2019, 12:37 PM

Thanks for the detailed list! I agree with most of your assessments. I like the new style graphics, and those zones which kept the same layout seem better liked than the ones that moved things around. Probably worst offender was the "new Freeport" which looks far better (to me anyway) and feels larger than the original, but things are only vaguely where they used to be.

I didn't know about a revamped Kith or Feerott. Now I have to see if I can get them in-game!

When I zone from the new Commonlands to Kith I get the old version. I have no trouble zoning into the new Innothule from the new South Ro. haven't tried new Innothule -> Feerott yet.

Right now I'm having fun exploring. There are some zoning glitches but once the player.lua quest scripts are changed you can easily access the new zones.

I might well repopulate them with some different content (except for freeport) and see what happens. Go on from there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaosSlayerZ

Going zone by zone:

New Misty Thicket - a 99% copy of old zone except new graphics and not perfectly straight zone walls. Perfectly fine IMHO.

New Nektulos - again 99% copy except new extra zone outs that could be put into good use for custom content. Fine again.

New Lavastorm - a rather significant change, but I like it. More land features, 3 extra zone outs for customization.

New CommonLands - replaced both old Commonlands, while look similar the size wise zone is smaller by about 25%, which personally I don't like.

New Desert Ro (2 zones) - similar but 30% smaller in total size than 3 old zones, definite loss, which is sad because I really like new graphics, but I need the room to put things in.

New High Pass - a 90% copy of old zone, minus extra zone out and very bright stone wall texture that may hurt some people eyes. OK by me.

New Freeport - a totally different beast from old Freeport. Probably fine unless you have personal attachment to old layout.

There is also supposedly New Innothule, new Kithior and New Feerrot (other than Feerrot the Dream), but I am unable to get them to load on RoF-2 client which supposedly the latest available for Emu.

There is of course a sentiment from die hard fans that detest anything revamped no matter how good it is.

ChaosSlayerZ · #6 02-05-2019, 12:57 PM

oh yeah few corrections:

-there is no other new Kithikor other than the Bloody Kithikor instance for SoD story line.

-there is no other new Feerrot other than the Dream for HoH story line

We have zone ids assigned to them in DB but zones apparently never were actually made and LIVE still uses old versions of both.

And yes there is a new Toxullia, which is now smaller and combined with new Kerra Ridge, and everything is ultra small and I don't like the whole thing.
It has zone out to Barren Coast, which is another tiny zone and not interesting in the slightest.

Dhrystone · #7 02-05-2019, 01:08 PM

Well mixed news from experimentation.

There is an accessible "new feerrott" named Ferrott2 and you can get there using #zone feerrott2!

I haven't explored it yet - it does appear to be populated differently and be a somewhat different layout but it's pretty big and has a working Brewall map and I'm looking forward to poking around in it. (The zoning from new Innothule goes to old Feerrott you have to #zone)

There doesn't appear to be any new Kith with new graphics. There's a zone defined as "Kithforest" but you can't #zone there and there's no configuration under that name. Not sure what's happening there but I suspect that's the "bloody kith" and not new graphics.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaosSlayerZ

oh yeah few corrections:

-there is no other new Kithikor other than the Bloody Kithikor instance for SoD story line.

-there is no other new Feerrot other than the Dream for HoH story line

We have zone ids assigned to them in DB but zones apparently never were actually made and LIVE still uses old versions of both.

And yes there is a new Toxullia, which is now smaller and combined with new Kerra Ridge, and everything is ultra small and I don't like the whole thing.
It has zone out to Barren Coast, which is another tiny zone and not interesting in the slightest.

ChaosSlayerZ · #8 02-05-2019, 01:32 PM

Interesting, I will check on that Ferrott2

Thanks!

Dhrystone · #9 02-05-2019, 02:17 PM

The more I look the more I find!

The "Bloody Kithicor" zone is Kith rendered with new graphics. (Official name oldkithicor) - that's awesome! Indeed there's a new Toxx (which I agree is smaller than I'd like.)

The new Feerrott2 (I kept missing it because I didn't put enough double letters in the name) also connects to a House of Thule dungeon style zone too.

There's also a version of Commonlands named "Old Commonlands" in a wrecked state. Also even "old Blackburrow", "Old Field of Bone" and "old Kaesora" and even "old 'Kurn" all of which I've yet to explore. All re-creations of classic zones with new graphics.

There's a wealth of locations here to stitch into a new world with new content. I'm starting to get excited about doing this.

Dhry

spiritchaser · #10 02-05-2019, 02:17 PM

Some zones that you don't have access to are simply because your client doesn't have the zone files for it. (like kithforest). The new feerrott was released along with HoT expansion. It included a zone point into HoT, if I remember correctly ? Most connecting zone-in's don't have to be done with a script, except for instanced, the rest can be all setup in the doors and zone_points table in db.

ChaosSlayerZ · #11 02-05-2019, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dhrystone

The more I look the more I find!

The "Bloody Kithicor" zone is Kith rendered with new graphics. (Official name oldkithicor) - that's awesome! Indeed there's a new Toxx (which I agree is smaller than I'd like.)

The new Feerrott2 (I kept missing it because I didn't put enough double letters in the name) also connects to a House of Thule dungeon style zone too.

There's also a version of Commonlands named "Old Commonlands" in a wrecked state. Also even "old Blackburrow", "Old Field of Bone" and "old Kaesora" and even "old 'Kurn" all of which I've yet to explore. All re-creations of classic zones with new graphics.

There's a wealth of locations here to stitch into a new world with new content. I'm starting to get excited about doing this.

Dhry

technically those not revamps, because they don't replace base zones, they were made in addition to as part of SoD progression story line - traveling to the past. That's why I didn't mention them. But if you like them, there is also Ocean Green village and Hills, which is old times Qeynos Hills.

spiritchaser · #12 02-05-2019, 03:08 PM

I wandered around some of those zones in later expansions, they have a lot of potential to customize and populate. I'm not much for instanced play, I would rather just have open custom zones with something different to look at and something new to do.

ChaosSlayerZ · #13 02-05-2019, 03:42 PM

Oh yeah there are also Plane of Hate 2 and Plane of Fear 2.
They are exact copies with new graphics.

spiritchaser · #14 02-05-2019, 03:52 PM

I just finished giving the whole drakkin player race a new home in a different zone with all their GM's and some merchants. There's just something I don't like about crescent reach.

Dhrystone · #15 02-05-2019, 04:35 PM

That's cool about Ocean Green Village and Hills. I had seen them in the .eqg files and planned to look into them.

The plan that's taking shape in my mind is connecting all the revamped zones ("old" or new) into a version of Antonica, and connect that to the Serpent Spines new zones (moors, etc). Such that all outdoor zones are consistently new style graphcs, but allow cities and dungeons to be old style where there's no alternative (Neriak, Oggok, Grobb, and so on)

But repopulate all these zones away from the classic towards a different concept. Repurpose all the zones in a new progression 1-50.

But do it with a classic feel - about the journey not the destination - no handholding, no instancing, slow progression; but allow most of the quality of life features of the ROF2 client.

And do it on the cheap - keep freeport the same, use all existing spells, crafting and items from PEQ, such that the bog standard ROF2 client will work with it - no "patcher" etc. But repopulate all the non-starter city zones.

I don't have abundant time to devote to this, but I'd like to play it!

Already thinking of a story line to make all this explicable and meaningful.

Something about an Erudite experiment going wrong...and altering the world.